One down, one to go for Oregon

Monday

Apr 30, 2012 at 12:01 AM

STANFORD, Calif. — A first-ever NCAA women’s lacrosse tournament appearance is now in sight for Oregon.

The Ducks received three goals from Nikki Puszcz, and tournament MVP Caroline Federighi had nine saves to lead Oregon to a 13-10 victory over Stanford in the MPSF tournament championship game on Sunday at Cagan Field.

It was UO’s ninth straight victory. The Ducks haven’t lost since a 13-10 loss to High Point on March 25.

The victory puts Oregon (14-4) into an NCAA tournament play-in game against Patriot League winner Navy at 1 p.m. Saturday at Papé Field.

The victory also wiped away years of frustration against the Cardinal, who had won the previous seven MPSF titles after California won the inaugural conference crown. Last season, the Ducks led the Cardinal 8-4 at halftime in the tournament title game before losing 12-10. Oregon, which has beaten Stanford twice in the past three weekends, had defeated the Cardinal only once before this season.

The Ducks trailed only once Sunday, when the Cardinal’s Carolyn Bradley scored the game’s first goal with 27:13 left in the first half. Oregon scored the next three goals, making it 3-1 on a goal by Sami Kiser off a pass from Kristina Barrett with 21:42 left. After the teams traded goals, the Ducks scored four straight, two by Puszcz, to end the half with an 8-3 lead.

After last year’s loss, Oregon’s players weren’t taking the lead for granted.

“A game can change in the blink of an eye,” Federighi said. “We knew Stanford could bring it.”

Just like a year ago, the Cardinal rallied in the second half, scoring the first three goals after intermission, two by Emilie Boeri, to cut the lead to 8-6 with 21:41 remianing.

But Hayley Milner scored off a pass from Jana Drummond with 19:12 left, and Drummond followed with a goal off a feed from Milner 20 seconds later to extend the UO lead back to four.

“I love how we got out to an 8-3 lead in the first half,” Larsen-Beck said. “That was important because Stanford made a good run in the second half, but we really dug in our heels and hung in there.”

Hannah Farr and Anna Kim scored for Stanford to cut the lead to 10-8, before Barrett answered with a free position shot with 12:30 left.

Jess Drummond scored two goals within a minute for the Ducks, the last coming with 8:13 left, and neither team could score again.

“We just had great confidence today,” Larsen-Beck said. “We have so many starters from last year. Everyone’s back except one, Alex Breiner, and she’s on our sideline (as a graduate assistant coach). They remember last year’s game.”

Federighi was joined on the all-tournament team by Jana and Jess Drummond, Puszcz and Colleen Taggart.

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